Samsung shifts 800,000 Galaxy Gears

Samsung has announced it has sold 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatches in two months worldwide.

According to Reuters, the Korean manufacturer said sales of the smartwatch had been better than expected and it would 'expand sales promotions'. Phones 4u was bundling the device, which has been priced between £250 and £300, for free with Galaxy Note 3 on contract tariffs, while Reuters claimed US retailer Best Buy was 'suffering 30% return rates'.

Samsung executive David Eun likened the Gear to 'small green tomatoes', giving the impression the watch was not the finished article. He told a Business Insider Ignition conference sit-down: 'What we're dealing with is small green tomatoes. What we want to do is take care of them and work with them so they can become big red ripe tomatoes.'He added: 'You want to make sure that you don't pluck the green tomato too early, and you want to make sure you don't criticize a small green tomato for not being that big, red ripe tomato.

'There can be that tendency, especially in larger companies ... when you see a start up, and you say, 'Hey, it's just me and five other folks and we've been working really hard X number of months and this is what we're doing.' And they're thinking, 'Well this isn't quite Gmail, is it?' And of course not, it's a small green tomato.'

A Samsung spokesperson said: 'It's the most sold wearable watch available in the market place...and we plan to expand its availability by expanding mobile devices that work with the Gear.'